The invention relates to a process for the transfer out of a tight enclosure of a fluid contained in a sealed container such as a jar sealed by a diaphragm, without removing the container from the enclosure and without breaking its seal. The invention also relates to an installation for performing this process.
In irradiated nuclear fuel processing plants, it is a standard practice to carry out at different points of the process sampling operations on the active solutions with a view to analyzing and measuring the said samples.
As described in FR-A-2 515 350, the sampling operations can, in particular, be performed in plastic jars, which are placed in containers known as sliders, whose special shape aids the transfer of the jars in tubes, under the action of pneumatic transfer means. Each jar is sealed by a perforatable diaphragm.
When the analysis chain belongs to a shielded chain within which takes place the removal of the samples, the jars containing the latter can be directly transferred into said analysis chain by the aforementioned pneumatic transfer means and without special precautions being taken.
However, when certain measurements or analyses are performed outside the shielded chain containing the samples, as could in particular be the case for certain radiometry operations or certain physical measurements concerning weakly active solutions, the transfer of the samples out of the shielded chain comes up against certain difficulties, particularly when the measurements to be performed require the transfer to take place without any dilution of the sample taken.
In particular, it is essential that the transfer of samples out of the shielded chain takes place under clean conditions, which is not the case with jars containing samples received within the shielded chain, bearing in mind the pollution existing in the latter. Moreover, the transfer of samples to the exterior of the shielded chain must be performable without polluting the samples and without the new clean environment receiving them being contaminated during transfer. It must also be possible to check that the samples in their new clean environment are not of an excessively irradiating nature, if it is wished to carry out the analyses without using glove boxes.